E-Learning Platform Provides Alternative to Medical School Lectures

Medical school professors and students now have free access to alternative learning materials from top medical professionals around the world through a new e-learning platform.

Medskl offers video lectures, whiteboard animations and summary notes designed to teach fundamentals of clinical medicine in a more engaging way. The platform’s open-access library currently contains 100 lesson modules — covering cardiology, dermatology, neurology and other medical school courses — with plans to introduce 100 more modules in the coming months, according to a prepared statement.

Sanjay Sharma, a retina specialist and professor of ophthalmology and epidemiology at Queen’s University, created Medskl after noticing that medical students were not engaged with the traditional lecture format.

“Today’s students are attuned to learning online, not sitting through long, didactic lectures,” Sharma said in a statement.

Since Medskl’s soft launch in July, more than 50 universities have registered to use the platform. Most Canadian medical schools will start using Medskl content this fall. In the United States, medical schools at Yale, Johns Hopkins and Duke will integrate the content into their curricula later this year.

“Our goal is to bring this information to a global audience and Medskl.com now makes it possible,” said Sharma. “Medical students, caregivers and patients — whether they’re located in Toronto, Lagos, Mumbai or anywhere else — can now learn from the best professors and the most effective educational resources.”

Faculty interested in contributing content to the e-learning platform can contact the company. To view the learning modules, visit the Medskl site.